Effects of Alternative Outcome Scenarios and Structured Outcome Evaluation on Case-Based Ethics Instruction

Case-based instruction has been regarded by many as a viable alternative to traditional lecture-based education and training. However, little is known about how case-based training techniques impact training effectiveness. This study examined the effects of two such techniques: (a) presentation of alternative outcome scenarios to a case, and (b) conducting a structured outcome evaluation. Consistent with the hypotheses, results indicate that presentation of alternative outcome scenarios reduced knowledge acquisition, reduced sensemaking and ethical decision-making strategy use, and reduced decision ethicality. Conducting a structured outcome evaluation had no impact on these outcomes. Results indicate that those who use case-based instruction should take care to use clear, less complex cases with only a singular outcome if they are seeking these types of outcomes.     

Examining college students' food security coping strategies and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

College students' food situations may have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have affected their health and well-being. However, little is known about how the pandemic impacted students' food experiences and how students coped with food-related disruptions, particularly from the student's own perspective. This study reviews data from 571 undergraduates who attended public colleges during Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 and wrote a narrative about the pandemic's impact on their food experiences. Most students indicated they experienced a wide range of food difficulties and adapted new food practices. Despite these challenges, students emphasized proactive coping strategies and positive pandemic outcomes rather than difficulties and negative outcomes. These findings have implications for students' long-term health and well-being.     

The Role of Positive Psychology Constructs in Predicting Mental Health and Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study presents the first examination of the relation between positive psychology constructs, mental health and academic achievement of students in Portugal. Using a sample of 367 middle-school students, the study revealed that crosssectional and longitudinal patterns of correlations between positive variables were consistent with expectations for the most part and suggested that hope, life satisfaction and self-worth have meaningful relations with mental health and academic achievement. In addition, no significant changes were found between the variables in study across the administrations and throughout the two cohorts, and all the variables in study demonstrate moderate to high stability across a 1- and 2-year time frame. Hope predicts students?? academic achievement, and life satisfaction was the strongest predictor of mental health, over 2-years. The implications of the findings are discussed with reference to prior studies and for future research.     

The influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making: a meta-analytic review

During the past three decades, researchers interested in emotions and cognition have attempted to understand the relationship that affect and emotions have with cognitive outcomes such as judgement and decision-making. Recent research has revealed the importance of examining more discrete emotions, showing that same-valence emotions (e.g., anger and fear) differentially impact judgement and decision-making outcomes. Narrative reviews of the literature (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006 ; Pham, 2007 ) have identified some under-researched topics, but provide a limited synthesis of findings. The purpose of this study was to review the research examining the influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making outcomes and provide an assessment of the observed effects using a meta-analytic approach. Results, overall, show that discrete emotions have moderate to large effects on judgement and decision-making outcomes. However, moderator analyses revealed differential effects for study-design characteristics and emotion-manipulation characteristics by emotion type. Implications are discussed.     

Expanding coping goodness-of-fit: religious coping, health locus of control, and depressed affect in heart failure patients

The goodness-of-fit coping hypothesis posits that problem-focused (PF) coping is particularly helpful under high controllability conditions, while emotion-focused (EF) coping is more helpful in low controllability situations. However, little research has examined whether the goodness-of-fit hypothesis applies to religious coping, a distinct set of coping resources and efforts. Further, little goodness-of-fit research has been conducted in the context of life-threatening illness. We tested coping goodness-of-fit for PF and EF as well as religious coping resources and strategies in 202 congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. Multiple regression analyses examined the extent to which each type of coping, health locus of control (HLOC) regarding their CHF, and their interactions related to subsequent depressed affect. Neither religious coping efforts nor religious resources were related to depressed affect. However, when examined in conjunction with internal HLOC, active coping and organized religious commitment were related to less depression for those higher in internal HLOC, while daily spiritual experience was related to less depression for those lower in HLOC. These results partially support the goodness-of-fit hypothesis and indicate a need to consider the perceived controllability of situations when examining the associations of religious coping resources and activities on depressive symptoms in the context of illness.     

Sexualization in Lyrics of Popular Music from 1959 to 2009: Implications for Sexuality Educators

This study analyzed sexualization in lyrics of popular music in the final year of six decades. The study sample was comprised of Billboard Hot 100 year-end songs from 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009 (N = 600). Regression analysis was used to compare the presence of sexualized lyrics from 1959 with other study years. Male artists’ lyrics (OR = 2.163; p = .029; CI = 1.080–4.333), non-White artists’ lyrics in 1999 and 2009 (OR = 2.670; p < .001; CI = 1.554–4.586), and 2009 lyrics (OR = 3.439; p = .003; CI = 1.515–7.809), were significantly more likely to contain sexualization. Recent research associating sexual content in media with adolescent sexual activity together with findings demonstrating a connection between exposure to objectifying media and self-sexualized behavior make this study’s findings significant to sexuality educators desiring to improve sexual health outcomes and promote healthy adolescent sexual development. Sexuality educators should be cognizant of the recent significant trend toward the inclusion of sexualization in music lyrics and the probable impact such music may have on adolescent sexual behavior and attitudes.     

Four days later in Cincinnati: longitudinal tests of hyperbolic discounting

Hyperbolic discounting of delayed rewards has been proposed as an underlying cause of the failure to stick to plans to forego one's immediate desires, such as the plan to diet, wake up early, or quit taking heroin. We conducted two tests of inconsistent planning in which respondents made at least two choices between a smaller-sooner (SS) and larger-later (LL) amount of money, one several weeks before SS would be received, and one immediately before. Hyperbolic discounting predicts that there would be more choices of SS as it became more proximate-and, equivalently, that among those who change their mind, "impatient shifts" (LL-to-SS) will be more common than "patient shifts" (SS-to-LL). We find no evidence for this, however, and in our studies shifts in both directions were equally likely. We propose that some of the evidence cited on behalf of hyperbolic discounting can be attributed to qualitatively different psychological mechanisms.     

A View from Developmental Systems Self Psychology: Discussion of Joseph Newirth's Paper, “A Case Study of Power and the Eroticized Transference–Countertransference”

The clinical case that centers on a female patient who presented with a generalized sense of despair, hopelessness, and shame is discussed. Infant research, child development, neurobiology, trauma research, and nonlinear dynamic systems theory are employed in recontextualizing concepts of defense, resistance, dissociation, development, and therapeutic action. Specific positive new experiences, emergent from within the analytic dyad, lead to the development of consolidated, integrated self-states and a securely consolidated, intimate attachment to the other, which proved mutative.     

Anchoring in sequential judgments

Building on the scale distortion theory (Frederick & Mochon, 2012), we explore the boundary conditions of anchoring outside of the standard paradigm. We argue that the conditions needed for anchoring effects are much more restrictive than those suggested by some theories, but much less restrictive than those suggested by others. Our findings illuminate both the scope and limits of this well-known effect and provide a framework for predicting its occurrence in novel settings.